South Africans must be told that Parliament is about to commit its gravest injury to our democracy, since 1994.
The public, assisted by civil society, has resisted many attacks on our democracy by Parliament. These range from resisting unjust land reform policies to the mammoth battle mounted by civil society in 2011 to discredit and reject the then “secrecy bill” (officially known as the Protection of State Information Bill).
The burden on citizens has been weighty in keeping in check those who are tasked with being public representatives.
Of course, there have also been some comical gimmicks, like Parliament’s ad hoc committee that was tasked with processing the Public Protector’s report on Nkandla in 2014. Adults, tasked with governing the country could, at the service of a despotic and corrupt president, dupe the public into believing that a swimming pool is a fire pool, an amphitheatre is a retaining wall and all other madness in between.
A step into more history reminds us that parliament, once in record time, killed and maimed the Scorpions — an elite crime-busting unit.
Some of us have been connected to this intractable behaviour by Parliament for some time. The roots of it are founded in the one-party dominant democracy (something about to change) that we have been subjected to. Members of Parliament are sheep shepherded by the political party headquarters, not their conscience, wit or research and lobbying by their citizens.
Effectively, there is no parliament of public representatives. We have political party representatives.
The aim of electoral reforms
This is the exact anomaly we are trying to solve by calling for comprehensive electoral reforms.
In June 2020, the Constitutional Court, in the New Nation Movement matter, gave a ground-breaking judgment that forced Parliament to amend the Electoral Act to permit independent candidates to contest national and provincial elections.
To the mind of average citizens, this necessitates a system similar to the one utilised at local government, where there are defined constituencies — wards — where individuals (independents and those belonging to political parties) can compete fairly against one another.
Then, to ensure the proportionality of the outcome, there is a proportional representation list.
However, to the manipulative politicians and the deceitful Minister of Home Affairs, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, this is not the case. They prefer to invent a system that does not exist anywhere in the world, as Valli Moosa who chaired the Ministerial Advisory Committee on this has alluded. For good measure, Valli Moosa is a veteran member of the ANC and surely, he also knows how important it is to have an electoral system that ensures the sanctity of the vote’s mandate “one person, one vote of equal value” is protected. Motsoaledi’s uncle, Elias Motsoaledi, must be turning in his grave as his nephew is hellbent to undo one of our greatest inheritances from the liberation struggle.
In summary, Motsoaledi is frog-marching the ANC to adopt a senseless electoral system. They propose that provinces must be constituencies.
Independent candidates are expected to contest political parties and not individuals from political parties.
They demand a far greater threshold of signatures for independent candidates to qualify for nomination onto the ballot compared to political parties. For good measure, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) want individual independent candidates to pay the same amount of money as political parties to participate in the elections.
Reject the Bill!
These are borderline insane demands, deemed irrational in legal terms. Civil society organisations are currently running campaigns to inform South Africans about this unjust act that is about to be committed to our democracy.
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This current Bill to be tabled before Parliament tomorrow must be widely rejected. Society must reject the fantasy to experiment with our democracy. Too much was lost for us to be here today, and no one hsould be allowed to reverse those democratic gains.
Civil society will go to court to undo this tragedy if Parliament goes ahead with it. It is becoming habitual for Parliament to fiddle while South Africa burns and yearns for stability and sound, inspiring, leadership.
Read more in Daily Maverick: ‘‘Sham’ Electoral Amendment Bill threat to 2024 election…’
We have made our pleadings to politicians, and they refuse to hear us. There is only one option remaining — catalysing society to stand up. We are at risk of having politicians make cosmetic changes to the Electoral Act for their own preservation. The Electoral Reform process is being hijacked right before our eyes. Once more, Parliament is walking back our democracy by insisting on an unconstitutional Electoral Amendment Bill.
Only the people can stop this rogue behaviour.
We need to educate, mobilise and catalyse different communities into action about electoral reform. Civil society organisations have avoided premature litigation on this process, even when Parliament had strayed very early on in the process. We view this matter as highly political and about the future of our democracy. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and we should not allow politicians to define the nature of reforms necessary to make for a more robust electoral system.
At the Rivonia Circle, we have been using our convening power in different communities to remind people that we have the power to act. The destiny of our democracy is in our hands, not the hands of politicians. For too long, we have allowed political parties to hijack our democracy and to centre themselves and not the people of South Africa.
We must seize the moment of redefining our electoral system for good and not allow narrowly-minded political parties to triumph over the will of the people. The politicians fear this because it will dislodge the power of a few who determine list processes in political parties.
The biggest victory from the Constitutional Court’s judgment is that we now have the opportunity to crack open the closed party lists for national and provincial elections. The current Bill being advanced by the portfolio committee on Home Affairs seeks to avoid this. They want independent candidates to contest political parties instead of individuals from political parties. The politicians are self-preserving. South Africans should care about the danger of this current trajectory.
On 8 October 2022, the Rivonia Circle hosted a workshop termed, South Africa 2.0: Mobilising People’s Electoral Power.
Read more in Daily Maverick: ‘Our vote has no value, say despairing South African activists’
During the conversation, one activist lamented:
“What does my voting right hold for me? What is its value? If I was using it to trade, what am I getting back? How do I know it counts and how can I hold those I voted for accountable?” said Prince Qwabe, leader of Ekujuleni Community Development in Soweto.
It is impossible to trade with our public representatives because they are protected by closed party lists. They answer to party bosses and not the public.
We want this to come to an end. We must return power back to the people, including advocating for a recall clause — this would allow constituencies (and not political parties) to pass a vote of no confidence on inept public representatives. Many people in our country are demanding the ability to fire ineffective public representatives who put our democracy at stake.
People have the power to act and we must ensure that our grassroots mobilisation work is about amplifying the voices of people. We should make it possible for people to share their views and have these sent out to parliamentarians, to pressure them to do the right thing through people’s power and not just the courts.
Lastly, our attention will soon turn on President Cyril Ramaphosa to pressure him not to sign into law a Bill that undoes the provisions of the constitution he was an essential part of its drafting. We simply reject this Bill, and we firmly believe the Constitutional Court will also reject this Electoral Amendment Bill. For once, our parliamentarians must save us the drama of political questions being resolved by the judiciary. DM/MC